A Passionate Moment between Two Best Friends
by Kay Elle Hunter
Summary: Harry arrives back in the common room late at night after a detention with Snape to find Hermione basically alone in there because Ron's injured in the hospital wing. Small discussion takes place & something summons them to KISS! PreHBP WARNING: RHr hint


_**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter is, quite unfortunately, NOT MINE but J.K.Rowling's ... and her various publishers and Warner Bros._

_**Note:** This is re-posted so some of you may have already read it sorry!_

**A Passionate Moment between Two Best Friends**

_By Kay Elle Hunter_

The common room was dark with a mere five people sitting around the glowing, dancing fire in deep silence. A couple of them were working hastily on last-minute work. One was reading their Herbology text with a kind of anxious expression on their face. Another was packing up their things as though to head up to bed, and the final one was staring into the flames, her bushy brown hair untidy around her shadowed face.

Harry, who had just returned from a dreadful detention with Snape, headed on over and took a seat beside the girl, startling her out of her revelry.

"Harry, I didn't hear you come in!" she said, breaking the silence that had previously filled the room.

Harry looked at her. "I honestly wish I never got an 'O' in Potions last year, Hermione," he sighed, resting his head in his hands.

"Don't be stupid," Hermione said lightly with an encouraging smile he didn't see. "You needed that 'O' if you want to be an Auror."

Harry lifted his head and looked at her. "I've had about twenty detentions with Snape this year!" he cried. "And I got every single one of them for doing nothing extremely bad. Big deal if my cauldron caught aflame last week. It was an accident! Who cares if my Simple Truth Potion was black instead of fluorescent yellow! It's all accidents, Hermione, simple little accidents and what do I get for it? Three days worth of detention for every little thing I do wrong! That's not playing fair, Hermione, that's downright heartless and mean! Any other teacher would treat it with memorising the recipe I concocted wrong and writing an essay on it! That would be much easier than what Snape's making me do! But no, Snape has to be different! Snape has to make me brew five gallons of Pepper-up Potion for Madam Pomfrey, mince animals' guts, peel slimy little eel things that are still perfectly alive and prone to bite you! I hate him, Hermione! I HATE HIM!"

"Harry, calm down," Hermione said, looking alarmed, just like the other people left in the room. "I'm sure it's not really _that_ bad –"

"Oh believe me, Hermione, it is!" Harry said harshly. "And it doesn't help when he starts insulting my father like he does. Calling him names, stating how he deserved to die. It's as though he exists to make my life misery!"

"Harry, just ignore what he says," Hermione said in a tone of calmness. "Imagine he's not there and just get on with what you've been set to do. Ignore him."

"I wish it were that easy, Hermione, but it isn't," Harry said in a much steadier and quieter voice. "He knows exactly what hits my nerve. He does it all the time. He takes his chances and he's learnt. He knows I hate people insulting my parents, he knows I hate people insulting everything close to me, he knows I hate him."

Hermione looked at Harry carefully. "He talks about Sirius, doesn't he?" she whispered. "He tells you about all the things Sirius used to do to him back in their school years. He insults him, doesn't he? He makes Sirius out to be the person he was convicted for? He attempts to insult your memory of Sirius?"

Harry stared at Hermione. He had always liked the fact Hermione could read between the lines, see things he wanted to say but couldn't bring himself _to_ say.

Very slowly, he nodded. "I hate him."

"Harry, I know it may be hard but the best cure for this is to ignore it, ignore him." Hermione paused and looked around. Everyone seemed to have gone to bed, leaving them in the common room alone. "Nothing Snape can say can puncture the way you feel about your parents and Sirius and every other person he attempts to spoil in your mind. Your parents and Sirius were good people, Harry. You know they were."

Harry nodded but stayed silent. He looked around at the empty common room and sat back on the couch. "I don't feel much like going to bed yet," he said, looking at Hermione slightly.

Hermione smiled slightly and sat back as well. "Nor do I," she said.

"Have you seen Ron tonight?" Harry asked. (After a Quidditch accident a couple of days previous, Ron was lying in a bed in the hospital wing, incredibly bruised and injured.)

"Yes, but he was fast asleep and Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let me wake him," Hermione sighed. "She said he needed the sleep unless he's going to stay in bed for the next month."

Harry gave a sigh, looking at Hermione out of the corner of his eye. "He'll get better," he assured her. "It was only a what? Thirty-foot plummet onto a solid hard ground?"

Hermione smiled grimly. "At least we won," she said.

Harry laughed. "Ron'll be fine once he's through at the hospital wing."

"Of course he will," Hermione said, looking at Harry.

Harry looked back at her. "How can you and I get along in a normal conversation like this, but if it were you and Ron you'd be at each other's heads?"

"You and I are more similar," Hermione said promptly. "Ron disagrees with me lots and then there's his … well, his jealousy, you know. I doubt he'll ever get over the Viktor issue…" She rolled her eyes and gave a short laugh. "I honestly don't know what his problem is."

"Seamus, Dean and Neville have this idea that perhaps he likes you as something more than a friend," Harry said quietly. "I must say it's a bit obvious," he admitted, "especially after – well, you know, the other week, when Ginny forced you two to kiss because neither of you had ever been kissed anyone."

Hermione went extremely pink and avoided Harry's eyes as she responded. "Don't be stupid," Hermione said for the second time that night. "Ron would never – No one feels that way – Why would Ron – why would _anyone_ ever want _me_?"

"Ron," Harry said, "and Krum, and Neville all have, or even still do. Hermione, you remember how Ron was at the Yule Ball don't you? He was so jealous of Krum that he started making up stupid excuses to cover himself up. _Fraternising with the enemy_ for Heaven's sake! More like _Fraternising with someone other than him_! That was when it all started, Hermione. That was when his feelings came to the surface."

Hermione's face went a shade pinker. "I just don't think it possible for Ron to really like me," she said. "I mean, look at me! Look at my hair! Look at my clothes, my figure! I'm nothing compared to Parvati or Lavender or even Ginny!"

"Hermione, you're not ugly!" Harry said truthfully. "You really aren't, and I'm definitely not the only boy who thinks that, Hermione. I listen to Seamus and Dean talking about how much puberty has agreed with you all the time. And then, Terry Boot and Ron were having a conversation – well, argument, really – in the boys' bathroom the other day about the way you looked. Boot was even saying that he was considering asking you out, but I think he changed his mind after his encounter with Ron." Harry gave her a rather amused smile.

"You know," Hermione said, "I think Cho made a wrong move with losing you the way she did, Harry. You really know how to cheer someone up as well as understand … well, you know…"

"You like Ron, then?" Harry asked with that same amused smile.

Hermione went a very bright red and slowly nodded. Harry's smile grew and Hermione buried her face.

Harry watched her for a moment, his eyes running slowly down a loose strand of curly hair hanging down the side of her face. Her ears, barely visible under the thick mass of curly hair, were bright red like her face. Her hands, small and slender with unpainted nails, held her hair back lightly, covering most of her face.

Harry felt a sudden and extremely odd feeling inside of him and he felt as though he couldn't look away, even though he knew he should, not only for his own sake, but also for their friendships and Ron's. His eyes traveled along the sitting and hunched frame of her body, taking in the few curves her rather baggy robes allowed him to see.

She slowly straightened up, her face now visible and returning to its natural, creamy colour. Harry gazed at her with a slightly uneasy feeling inside him. He ran his eyes over the curve of her nose, the redness of her cheekbones, took in the warmness of her chocolate brown eyes, and, finally, rather hesitantly, discovered how pink, and soft her lips looked.

His heartbeat quickened against his will and he cursed his raging teenage hormones as she merely sat there, staring at him with a small, confused frown on her face as his eyes scanned her lips several times, unconsciously wetting his own.

"Harry?" Hermione asked in a rather confused and also slightly shaky voice as he leant in slowly, his eyes still on her lips. "Harry, are you alright?"

"Shh," Harry said as he moved in closer.

Hermione was fully aware of what he was going to do and half of her willed herself away, but the other half just wouldn't allow herself to move. He was coming closer with every long, passing second and with every second that second half grew stronger. That part of her wanted Harry to kiss her.

Finally, Harry lips came to a rest on hers, kissing her softly on the lips and feeling the warmth of her mouth. Breaking away, he moved his face back a few inches to see her reaction. She sat there, her eyes looking slightly uncertain, but she was licking her lips as though wishing, almost asking for more. Harry swallowed and obeyed, resting his lips on hers again, this time kissing her deeper, enticing her to kiss him back.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer, as she raised one of her hands to rest on his neck, her eyes closing as the kiss continued. The fiery passion grew between them as the kiss become deeper, stronger and more demanding.

Harry finally drew away, breathing hard as he looked at Hermione with a rather cautious and uncertain expression on his face.

"That was – That was –" He began, but he seemed unable to describe it.

"Wrong," Hermione finished for him, her cheeks regaining there previous redness.

"Yeah," Harry agreed with a nod. "I shouldn't have – I didn't mean – I just –" He paused to regain his composure. "I'm sorry, I just … _felt like it_ I guess. It didn't mean anything really, I just – It's been over a year since I first kissed Cho. I guess I –"

"I understand, Harry," Hermione said. "It was nothing. It was just a passionate moment between two best friends. It meant absolutely nothing."

Harry and Hermione nodded together and gazed into the dancing flames of the burning fire in silence for several minutes.

"I promise not to tell Ron," Harry said eventually, as Hermione made to get up.

Hermione looked around at him and smiled. "Thank-you," she said and she headed away through the doorway towards the girls' dormitories, leaving Harry in the dark common room alone.

He sat in front of the fire for almost half and hour longer, gazing into the flames as he regained his thoughts and contemplated exactly what the kiss was about. In the end, as he stood to head upstairs to bed, he realised that Hermione was most likely right. The moment they shared was merely a passionate moment between two best friends that meant absolutely nothing. He didn't have feelings for Hermione and Hermione didn't have feelings for him. It was a mere spare-of-the-moment event that no one but them would ever know about…

**The End**


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